NBES Rookie Michelle Theriault Heads Into This Weeks Events With Enthusiasm And Optimistic
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Loudon, New Hampshire
Jun 28, 2007
On the heels of a successful open test session at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS) last month, NASCAR Busch East Series (NBES) rookie Michelle Theriault headed into this week’s event with enthusiasm and optimistic.
Theriault, a native of Connecticut enters the sixth race of the season hoping to shake a recent string of bad luck and turn her dream season into a career best finish in Friday’s New England 125.
Driving the No. 37 GLOCK, Inc. Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS, Theriault spent much of Thursday’s lone practice session on the 1.058 mile-paved oval further familiarizing herself with “The Magic Mile. ”
Under the guidance of car owner Jeff Spraker, Theriault was one of the first 10 machines to tackle NHIS in the hour and-a-half practice session.
The North Carolina native reported that her car is good, but she was unable to run hard through turns one and two as the car wanted to drift up towards the wall.
Spraker advised his rookie to maintain patience and the team would make several adjustments at the conclusion of the first run.
After some minor tweaking with the GLOCK Racing machine, Spraker, a former NASCAR Busch East Series driver himself set his protégé back on track. Despite noting to the crew that her GLOCK, Inc. Chevrolet was handling better, the best since testing, she was still maintaining her previous lap times.
Guiding her driver through different ways around “The Magic Mile”, Spraker called for the former USAR Hooter’s Pro Cup driver to bring her automobile to the attention of the GLOCK Racing crew where the team would make additional adjustments to free up the car.
During her last major run, her lap times improved slightly but Spraker asked his driver to drive her No. 37 GLOCK, Inc. Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS harder into turn one. After a few more laps around NHIS, Theriault brought her machine back to the attention of her crew where they would make a spring change and prepare her car for a mock qualifying session.
During the qualifying run, Theriault looked solid giving the team high hopes for a career best starting position for tomorrow race.
At the conclusion of practice, Theriault posted the 34th fastest time with a time of 32.035 seconds transferring to a speed of 118.895 MPH.
“We’re making improvements and the car is better, but we need to pick it up a little, ” offered Theriault. “We worked a lot on race setup during practice. It’s going to be a tough event but I have a good feeling we are going to be fine. The guys have done a great job preparing the car and I can’t say enough about that. After we qualify, the goal for the race is to take our time and be around in the end, that’s when it counts. We need to put ourselves back in the top-10 and this is a place that we’re capable of doing that. ”
Car owner Jeff Spraker said, “We’re going to make a few adjustments before qualifying and see if we can put ourselves in a good position for the race. We were a little better from the test, but we’re looking to pick up the pace and put ourselves in contention for a top-10 finish Friday. Hopefully the changes we make will work and Michelle can drive the race of her life tomorrow afternoon. ”
Theriault drew the 35th position for Busch pole qualifying set for later this afternoon.
Entering NHIS, Theriault locks 14th in the NASCAR Busch East Series (NBES) standings. She is just a mere 77 points from the 10th position held by Jamie Hayes. She also ranks seventh in the NBES Rookie-of-the-Year standings, sitting just 21 points from the top spot.
The New England 125 (125 laps/132.25 miles) is the sixth of 14 events on the 2007 NASCAR Busch East Series schedule. Busch pole Qualifying is set for later today commencing at 4:30pm Local Time. The green flag will waive on Friday, June 29 shortly after 5:10pm Local Time.
